Pages

"When they allow a talk show host to play them like a two-dollar banjo, they demonstrate what kind of backbone they'll bring to the job later on, if we elect them. After they get elected will they continue to allow Jeff Crank to put a nickel in them and wind them up every Saturday morning?"

Monday, June 8, 2009

"Our Reckless Spending Spree...A New Government Model for America?"

Today’s front page headline in newspapers across the nation reads “Conservatives score big wins in European Union parliament voting in France, Germany and many other nations.”

Coincidentally, this is the opposite of what is happening in the United States as our government appears to be rushing toward an ultra liberal, socialist (or dare we say Marxist agenda) faster than a soft ice cream cone drips onto the hands of a child on a 100 degree summer day in middle America.

And it doesn’t stop in Washington, D.C. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter in his 2006 campaign (and United States Senator Ken Salazar in his 2004 campaign, for that matter) “ran to the right” with a somewhat non-offensive, mild agenda. With no record to run on they both appeared to be palatable candidates to many. What followed in the ensuing years, by any definition and to their detriment, was a liberal, far left agenda and list of accomplishments that would make Marx, Joseph Stalin, Lenin and Hugo Chavez proud. One historical internet reference to socialism suggests that ‘Socialism, to Marxists, is simply the transitional phase between capitalism and a higher phase of communist society.’ Is that the direction you want our State or our Country pursue?

Early this year, and again last week, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said that he hoped that President Obama would fail. Liberal members of Congress fell all over themselves rushing to open microphones provided by willing media and stating their outrage as to how Limbaugh could wish such a thing upon our President. But we know it was not a personal attack on our president but, rather, Rush’s opinion that President Obama’s policies will destroy this nation. He is entitled to his opinion.

The sad reality is that within his first twenty weeks as President, Mr. Obama’s actions have created a tectonic plate shift perhaps one hundred times greater than the history making 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake with regard to the long-lasting effect in will have on our nation’s economy. Additionally, more than one million lives were lost between the Shaanxi, China 8+ magnitude earthquake of 1556 A.D. (830,000) and the December 26, 2004 Sumatra 9.1 magnitude earthquake (227,898). Yet the economic disaster being crafted by current Administration policies and actions in Washington, D.C. will negatively affect the lives of tens of millions of U.S. citizens for generations to come.

The late Dr. Adrian Rogers (1931-2005) observed "You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."

Americans voted for “the change we need,” and the change we have experienced in the last four months is more than enough to send our collective heads spinning…and more than enough for a Hollywood producer to consider a remake of “Poltergeist.”

In our own backyard, in Colorado, many are paraphrasing Mr. Limbaugh’s remarks by hoping that Governor Ritter, or to be clear his agenda, will fail. Running to the right in 2004, legislating from the left since, and now beginning his 2010 re-election efforts from the middle as a moderate, makes it quite clear that he is the consummate politician…speaking out of both sides of his mouth. While some would suggest this is fraud it is, in the very least, disingenuous. Governor Ritter’s movement on his political positions gives new meaning to "Where in the world is Waldo,” or more recently “Where in the world is Matt Lauer?” Where in the world is Governor Ritter?

Former Colorado State Senate leader Mark Hillman, in the June 8, 2009 edition of Capital Review observation of President Obama stated “His actions, as well as his words, betray him.” The same can be said for Governor Ritter and his cronies and their out-of-control, reckless and irresponsible spending habits.

In 2009:· Governor Ritter and his cronies eliminated the Senior Property Tax Exemption for approximately ten percent of the population, or 450,000 senior citizens.· Governor Ritter and his cronies created a brand new State Fee on Marriage License applications of $20, for NO services rendered; this to be added to the $10 fee a county office gets for providing the service.· Governor Ritter and his cronies created a brand new State Fee for late vehicle registrations. Previously counties could charge up to $10, one time, for late registrants. Now the State wants up to $90 more for late registrations.· Governor Ritter and his cronies raised motor vehicle fees for everyone.· Governor Ritter and his cronies have created a new surcharge for roads and another for bridges.· Governor Ritter and his cronies have forced through a green vehicle bill. I prefer white or silver vehicles.· Governor Ritter and his cronies have passed a bill to eliminate the ability of any vendor to retain any amount of state sales tax revenues to compensate for the vendor’s expenses incurred in the collection and remittance of the tax revenues to the state.· Governor Ritter and his cronies believe illegal immigrants are ‘entitled’ to in-state tuition, and· Governor Ritter and his cronies repealed the long-standing state measure which placed a 6 percent annual growth limit on appropriations to the state’s general fund with excess monies diverted to two spending areas. This, to many, destroys The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR), passed in the early 1990s, which took tax-increasing authority away from the Legislature and gave it to the voters. Voters down in El Paso County should note that Senator John Morse was the bill’s primary sponsor.

The list of irresponsible spending and fee happy legislation goes on and on.

It is also worth mentioning that Governor Ritter’s hand-picked Chairman of the 2008-2009 Election Reform Commission said in November 2006 that “access to the ballot for everyone is more important that determining their eligibility to vote.” Really? Really.

The fabric of our great nation is being destroyed in a matter of months as surely as the original American Flag by Betsy Ross has deteriorated over the last 233 years. Thankfully, our flag has been restored and now resides in the National Museum of American History, one of the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We can only hope that our nation, too, can be saved.

1 comment:

Then maybe it is time to divide the concept of “wealth” itself, it is a socially constructed concept; the categorizations of “wealthy” and “poor”, the items used to define the rich as what they have and what the poor lack (Such as money), and the defining of what these classes do as work vs not-work as indicators as “class” only have meaning because we collectively allow them to. The sooner we realize this and become the constructors instead of the constructed, the better.